Inking mechanism of planographic rotary printing machines



Dec. 27, 1927.

A. B. EVANS INKING MECHANISM OF PLANOGRAPHIC ROTARY PRINTING MACHINES Filed Feb. 17. 1927 y M I M J- Jttarney.

till

Patented Dec. 27, 1927.

PATENT OFFICE ARTHUR BURROU'GHES EVANS, OF LEEDS, ENGLAND.

INKIZNG MECHANISM OF PLANGGRAPHIIC ROTARY PRINTING MACHINES.

Application filed February 17, 1927, Serial No. 169,0?0, and in Great Britain December 17, 1925.

In planographic rotary printing machines as ordinarily constructed, 1t 1s usual to provide a niunber oi inkingrollers covered with leather, rubber, composition, or the like, which are kept in continuous rotation for the portion olt a cycle of the machine during which they are not in contact with the planegraphic design surlace, by means of geared rider rollers or the like contacting with thorn and which revolve at the same circiunferential speed as the planographie design surface. Such rider rollers are also given a longitudinal rcciprocati' movement for the purpose of levelling and lireshening the ink upon the inking rollers. By a different method in the case of machines printing troni raised surfaces, the inking rollers themselves are made to reciprocate longitudinally, but this method is not applicable to planegraphic printingbecause of? the scrubbing ellect which would be caused upon the design by the reciprocation. or these rollers.

lt has bel'ore been proposed in an offset printii'ig press to convey the ink or colour from the inkil'lgr rollers to the printing plate by means oil a rubber or equivalent inking blanket disposed upon the oifEct cylinder in a position diametrically opposite to the onset blanket, so that the ofisot blanket receives theink or colour previously deposited on the printing plate by the inking blanket and transfers it to the sheet to be printed. Such mechanism has the disadvantage that there is the possibility of contact oilithe inking blanket with torn paper which frequently becomes attached to the otl'set cylinder.

This disadvantage is removed in the mechanism. according to the present inven tion and iilnrthcrn'lore accidental, contact of the inking blanket with any sheet carrying surface is avoided.

According to this invention I substitute for inking; rollers in a planographic printing machine, an additional drum or cvliinler carrying a rubber blanket or the like. which drum or cylinder and blanket are respectively in direct gearing and in impression contact with the planographic design sun lace, the additional drum or cylinder serv ingr solely to effect the transfer oi? ink from the ink distributing roller to the planograpln ic surface and being disposed away from any other part oi the printing mechanism.

According to this invention moreover, I provide a method of feeding ink to the rubher blanket or the like, and distributing rollers of steel or the like which contact with the rubber blanket and have a longitudinal rec lprocating movement.

According to this invention moreover, I provide more than one ellective set of inking apparatus for the purpose of inking dillerent coloured planographic plates grouped upon the periphery of a single planographic cylinder.

According to this invention moreover, I provide the necessary means of reciprocatiou, to be operated direct from the drum or cylinder, upon the distributing rollers whose surfaces are indirect contact with the inked blanket or the like upon suchdruln or cylinder, and I avoid the scrub or the like ell'ect which is a consequence of such root operation upon inking rollers in. the case olf planographic printing.

The invention hcrcina .er described by way of example with releronce to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which Figure l is a diagram illustrating an ar rangenient of rollers according to the invcnlion in which a drum or cylinder carrying a. rubber blanket or the like is employed as an inking device, and

llig'ure 2 is a diagram illustrating an arrangenient oi? rollers similar to Figure 1 in W l'llUlk, however, two sets of inking" u1echainsin are employed in conjunction with a single plate cylinder carrying two planegraphic ainting surfaces.

.In carrying the invention into ellect accordingto one construction and with rcfereilce to Figure l of the accompanying; diagrannnatie drawings, the plate cylinder it carries a planographic printing surface 0. which extends over a part only oi. the periphery of the cylinder o. A. drum or cylin dcr 7) carrying a rubber blanket b is di rectly or indirectly geared with the plate cylinder of and the rubber blanket is adapted to make contact with the pianographic surface a The rubber blanket b may be attached to the drum or cylinder Z- by anysuitable means, but the blanket Z1 advantageously extends over only a part of the iaeriphery of the drum or cylinder 7) in order that the devices for the attachment of the blanket 72 to the drum or cylinder 7) may he kept below the periphery thereof, the circurnterential length of the blanket being at least as great as the plauopgraphic surface it and the blanket Z2 being disposed beyond the remainder of the circumference of the drum or cylinder b. The cylinders a and b, and a and b are journaled in suitable supports it and are directly or indirectly'geared as indicated by gearing i and i in Figure 1, and 2', i and 2' in Figure 2, whereby the cylinders a, Z) and b are caused to rotate at the same peripheral speed.

The group of distributingrollers, of whiclrthe rollers c and all may be of steel or like metal, and the rollers 6 covered with leather, composition, or other suitable sub stance, are arranged so that the rollers 0 contact during printing with the blanket Z2 and they are directly or indirectly geared so as to run in unison with the cylinder Z). In order to efiect lateral distribution the rollers a may be reciprocated laterally by any suitable means and preferably by the. method described in the specification of the prior British Patent No. 116,533.

The ink is fed in known manner to the rollers c, d, e from an ink duct 7 through a feedroller g which contacts alternatively with the ink duct f and one of the ink roll ers c, d, 6.

Thus the rubber blanket 6 receives ink properly distributed from the ink duct 7 by Way of the feed roller 9 and the distributing rollers c, d, e and by reason of the rolling contact between the blanket b and the planographic surface a the latter is inked at each revolution.

According to a further modification illus trated in Figure 2 of the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, the plate cylinder at is provided with two planographic surfaces a a and two drums or cylinders b, b carrying respectively two rubber blankets b 5 are provided to co-operate with the plate cylinder (1. The drums or cylinders I), b are inked by separate sets of mechanism such as described with reference to Figure 1. It will be observed that during rotation of the mm chine each planographic surface a a receives a separate inking from the respective blanket b b and thus the plate cylinder (1 carries two planographic surfaces inked with the same or different colours and may be utilized for various purposes in known manner.

I claim:

1. A planographic rotary printing machine, comprising a cylinder, a planographic surface upon the said cylinder, a cylinder serving solely as an inking cylinder, an inking blanket upon the said inking cylinder, means supporting the two cylinders so that the inking blanket may contact with the planographic surface, and means for rotating the two cylinders at the same peripheral speed, substantially as hereinbefore described.-

' 2. A planographic rotary printing machine, comprising a' cylinder, a planographic surface upon the said cylinder, a cylinder serving solely as an inking cylinder, an ink-- ing blanket upon the said inking cylinder, means supporting the two cylinders so that the inking blanket may contact with the planographic surface, means for rotating the two cylinders at the same peripheral speed, ink distributing rollers to contact with the inking blanket upon the inking cylinder, an inking fountain, and an ink feeding roller disposed between the fountain and the dis tributingv rollers, substantially as hereinbefore described.

A planographic rotary printing ma chine, comprising a cylinder, a planographic surface upon the said cylinder, :1 cylinder serving solely as an inking cylinder, an ink ing blanket upon the said inking cylinder, means supporting the two cylinders so thatthe inking blanket may contact with the planographic surface, means for rotating the two cylinders at the same peripheral speed, laterally reciprocating ink distributing rollers grouped. around the inking cyl-- inder and contacting with the inking blanket thereon, an inking fountain, and an ink feeding roller disposed between the fountain and the distributing rollers, substantially as hereinbefore described.

4. A planographic rotary printing machine comprising a cylinder, a plurality of planographic surfaces upon, the said cylinder, a plurality of cylinders serving solely as inking cylinders, inking blankets respcctively provided upon the said inking cylinders, means for supporting the inking cylinders relatively to the cylinder bearing the planographic surfaces so that the respective inking blankets may contact with the respective planographic surfaces, ink distribut ing mechanism grouped around and feeding ink to each of the inking cylinders, and means for effecting therotation of the inking cylinders and the cylinder bearing the plauographic surfaces at the same peripheral speed, substantially as hereinbefore described.

5. A planographic rotary printing machine, comprising a cylinder, a planographic surface upon the said cylinder, a cylinder serving solely as an inking cylinder, 9. rubber inking blanket upon the said inking cylinder, means supporting the two cylinders so that the rubber inking blanket may contact with the planographic surface, and means for rotating the two cylinders at the same peripheral speed, substantially as hereinbefore described.

6. A planographic rotary printing machine comprising a cylinder, a plurality of planographic surfaces upon the said cylinder, :1 pluralityv of cylinders serving solely as inking cylinders, rubber inking blankets respectively provided upon the said inking cylinders, means for supporting the inking cylinders relatively to the cylinder bearing the planog'aphie surfaces so that the respective rubber inking blankets may contact with the respective planographic surfaces, ink distributing mechanism grouped around and feeding ink to each of the inking cylinders, and means for effecting the rotation of the inking cylinders and the cylinder hearing the planographic surfaces at the same peripheral speed, substantially as hereinbefore described.

in planographie rotary printing ma chine comprising a cylinder, a plurality of planographic surfaces upon the said cylinder, a pliiirality of cylinders serving solely as inking cylinders, inking blankets respectively provided upon the said inking cylinders, means for supporting the inking cylinders relatively to the cylinder bearing the planographic surfaces so that the respective inking blankets may contact with the respective planographic surfaces, a set of laterally reciprocating ink distributing rollers grouped around and corresponding to each inking cylinder, an inking fountain for each set of ink distributing rollers and an ink feeding roller for each inking fountain disposed between the fountain and the dis tributing rollers, substantially as hereinbefore described.

8. A planographic rotary printing ma chine, comprising a cylinder, a planographic surface upon the said cylinder, a cylinder serving solely as an inking cylinder, an inking blanket upon the said inking cylinder, means supporting the tWo cylinders so that the inking blanket may contact with the planographic surface, and gearing between the two cylinders for rotating them. at the same peripheral. speed, substantially as hereinbefore described.

9 A planographic rotary printing machine, comprising a cylinder, a plurality of planographic surfaces upon the said cylinder, a plurality of cylinders serving solely as inking cylinders, inking blankets respectively provided upon the said inking cylinders, means for supporting the inking cylinders relatively to the cylinder bearing the planographic surfaces so that the respective inking blankets may contact With the respective planographic surfaces, ink distributing mechanism grouped around and feeding ink to each of the inking cylinders, and gearing between the inking cylinders and the cylinder bearing the planographie surfaces for rotating the said cylinders at the same peripheral speed, substantially as here inbeforo described.

10. A planog-aphic rotary printing machine, comprising a cylinder, a planographic surface upon the said cylinder, a cylinder serving solely as an inking cylinder, an ink ing blanket mounted upon and projecting beyond the peripheral surface of the inking cylinder, and means for rotating the two cylinders so that the planographic surface and the inking blanket have the same surface speed, substantially as hereinbefore described.

1.1. A planographic rotary printing machine, comprising a cylinder, a plurality of planographic surfaces upon the said cylinder, a plurality of cylinders serving solely as inking cylinders, inking blankets respectively provided upon the said inking cylinders so as to project beyond the peripheral surface of the said cylinders, means for supporting the inking cylinders relatively to the cylinder bearing the planographie surfaces so that the respective inking blankets may contact With the respective planographic surfaces, ink distributing mechanism grouped around and feeding ink to each of the inking cylinders, and means for effect ing the rotation of the inking cylinders and the cylinder bearing the planographic sur faces so that the planographie surfaces and the inking blankets have the same surface speed, substantially as hereinbefore described.

AR'Il-IUR BURROUGHES EVANS. 

